Saturday, October 18, 2014

Abandoned in a Bitter Struggle

Steven Katsineris with a letter regarding the conflict in Kobane, Northern Syria.

Dear Editor,

Despite the ongoing conflict in Kobane in northern Syria where Kurdish groups and other fighters etc are now battling "Islamic State" forces, the rest of the world community is mostly standing back and watching.

The city would have fallen long ago if it was not for the determined resistance organized by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (YPD) and its military forces, Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). Yet the USA and its western allies are very reluctant to help any real progressive and independent parties that are fighting IS.

The USA and allies are only really interested in supporting forces that will toe the US line, various conservative groups and corrupt and ineffective governments. And Turkey once again plays immoral political games with the lives of thousands of Kurds and other people. It is the Kurdish fighters and other local armed groups in the region that are the most well-organised, motivated, skilled forces and most capable of defeating IS, but they are receiving little or no help from other countries.

Oppressive terror groups like IS will never be defeated by airstrikes alone or foreign troops. In fact they will probably add fuel to the fire and attract more fighters to their cause with appeals to oppose foreign intervention. IS and Al-Qaeda will only be beaten by the active participation of the peoples and communities (Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrian Christians, Armenians, Arabs and others) that live in these countries.

If IS is to be crushed then the international community must grasp this, show real solidarity and provide the necessary material aid and support to empower and help these peoples and their authentic resistance organizations. Otherwise the world will witness continued humanitarian suffering, many more civilians being massacred and more ethnic cleansing.

Will the rest of the world community allow the Kurds and other brave fighters who have risen up against tyranny and are standing up against the evil of IS to be abandoned in this bitter struggle.

2
comments
:

Reading this post reminded me of a comment that Tain Bo made several months ago on a thread related to a completely different subject. Speaking of the Warsaw Uprising, he pointed out how the mighty Russian army had sat outside the Warsaw ghetto at a safe distance, watching the month long insurgency whilst the "rebels" were slowly burned, shot, gassed out of the sewers then finally defeated. Then, when it was all over the Russians came in and marched all over the Nazis on their way to their prize - Berlin.

I can't help seeing a parallel with the situation now happening in Ein Al Arab/Kobani. When the Kurds are all dead and there is no "buffer" between ISIL and Europe, the West will act.

It's totally shameful that Turkey is not allowing reinforcements to cross the border to help the Peshmerga fighters, and even more shameful that the West is not pressuring Turkey to open their border.

I expect they'll wait until this latest "war" is over and done with, when ISIL have been "defeated" you know, as in "Mission Accomplished" and then at some point in the future they'll commission a life-size bronze memorial statue to "celebrate" the slain Peshmerga. How decent of them!

And in a few years time, when it all kicks off again, the newest incarnation of ISIL will blow up the statue, but hey, who will care? It'll all be history by then and swept under a dusty carpet.

I think the relaxed attitude and minimal response has more to do with forcing Turkey to bend to the will of the west.It seems like the west want Kobani to fall but the Kurdish resistance are holding down the fort basically alone and caught between a political game of brinkmanship and the fanatical extremists.

The west appears too relaxed and even gets creative explaining how it has become more difficult to pin point the extremists as they blend in with the locals.Meanwhile the slaughter goes on and those with the power to stop it are content for the time being to see who blinks first.

It is astounding that the murder of 3 innocent Israeli kids sparked off a brutal campaign against the Palestinians’ and here we have horrendous wholesale slaughter and a regime not unlike the Nazis barely going unchallenged.

Anthony McIntyre

Former IRA volunteer and ex-prisoner, spent 18 years in Long Kesh, 4 years on the blanket and no-wash/no work protests which led to the hunger strikes of the 80s. Completed PhD at Queens upon release from prison. Left the Republican Movement at the endorsement of the Good Friday Agreement, and went on to become a journalist. Co-founder of The Blanket, an online magazine that critically analyzed the Irish peace process.